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Diabetes symptoms explained

Are you always thirsty? Have you the need to urinate all the time? Do you suffer from extreme fatigue, blurred vision or numb feet and hands? If so, you might be one of the estimated 750,000 people in Britain who have type 2 diabetes but don't know it. In some cases the symptoms are so subtle that many disregard them, but left unchecked you risk organ and nerve damage, a stroke, kidney disease or blindness.

Diabetes is a condition in which the amount of glucose in the blood is too high because the body cannot use it properly, and there are 2.2m diagnosed sufferers in Britain. Normally, glucose levels are regulated by a hormone called insulin, but this mechanism is faulty in diabetes sufferers.

Diabetes comes in two forms: type 1 and type 2. Those with type 1 cannot produce any insulin and this condition normally manifests itself in childhood.